They have succeeded with keeping the UI usable on such a small screen.

The T-9 input method works really well for shorter messages (tweets, facebook status update and SMS messages). But there doesn’t seem to be a way to use multiple dictionaries, so I have to switch between US and Swedish all the time.

Spotify on Android is much nicer than Spotify for iPhone.

Timescape is unfortunately really slow when loading the new posts, but when it’s done loading it’s back to being as fast as you would like it to be.

Roadsync works so much better than HTC’s exchange sync. Sooooo much better. And it works really well together with zimbra.

Around a four months ago I got a Nokia N900 from work, it was for me to learn the Maemo system and develop for it, education. The N900 is a pretty large brick, heavy as well, but the keyboard is one of the better hardware keyboards I have ever used in such a small device.

Just a week ago I switched with my colleague to a HTC Hero. One of the reason is that I already have the iPhone in my pocket, carrying around the N900 as well was very very redundant and often resulting in that I only used the iPhone anyway. The only thing that I preferred to do on the N900 was IRC, because of the hardware keyboard.

The N900 is unpolished and it feels very much like a proof-of-concept rather than a real end-user product, which I realize is the exact same view Nokia has on the N900.

Also the battery capacity is horrible, really really horrible. It drains within 8 to 10 hours when you use it normally and if you want to use any of the nice features (like the IM integration) you are looking at a lot less.

There is a lot to like about the N900 as well. It’s a very open system, compared to Android and iPhone and it’s nice that you don’t have to jailbreak it to get root access, you just write “sudo gainroot” and you got it. The web browser is also very good, not as fast as MobileSafari, but it renders the pages very good and you can use most webpages without a problem in it. The inclusion of flash is pretty useless, it’s not fast enough to do anything useful with.

The IM/VoIP integration into contacts is probably one of the better I have seen. Just add all the different IM accounts you use and then you can send SMS, call over VoIP or normally all from the address book, and it doesn’t hurt that the functionality is modular, so developers can write their own protocol integration.

I will eagerly watch Mameo’s Meego’s future, I think that Nokia is onto something here, they just need to polish it way more. Meanwhile, I will use my iPhone for smartphone stuff, and the HTC Hero for making calls.

Why not use the iPhone to do *both* the smartphone stuff and for making calls? Why is the HTC Hero superior to a smaller, lighter, more reliable simple mobile phone? What’s interesting about the HTC Hero?

It’s going to be interesting to see where Meegoo goes, especially as they’re gonna rape the developers by changing the toolkit, possibly the whole toolchain; and as it relies on a confidential store and a very small user-base (no users = no apps, and vice versa).

Also, usability is very important on mobile devices because of the interaction constraints; can the FOSS community pull off good apps?

Ah, yes I should explain that I use two phones, one work phone and one private. I learned at my last employeer that if I am not able to switch of my work phone when not working I just keep working.

So I make calls with my iPhone as well. The reason why the hero is a better work phone for me is because the batterylife is so much better than the n900 and also the more slim profile, which fits better in my pocket 🙂

Regarding meego, user experience is still one of the largest obstacles for nokia to bridge, I hope that the moblin DNA shines through, since it offers a better UI.